Serie A | Juventus 4-0 Pisa: Yildiz inspiration brings much needed victory

Juventus took a while to break Pisa down, but eventually ran out 4-0 winners with Andrea Cambiaso, Khephren Thuram, Kenan Yildiz and Jeremie Boga goals to end their negative streak.

The Bianconeri were fresh off another determined comeback from 3-1 down to hold Roma 3-3, but had just two points from the last four Serie A rounds, along with Champions League and Coppa Italia exits. Manuel Locatelli returned from suspension, but Dusan Vlahovic, Emil Holm and Arek Milik were still out of action on Luciano Spalletti’s 67^th birthday.

Pisa had one point from Oscar Hiljemark’s four games in charge, missing Simone Scuffet, Daniel Denoon, Isak Vural and Lorran, with Arturo Calabresi back in the starting XI.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

It was Pisa who had a big chance after four minutes, when Stefano Moreo’s glancing header at the near post on an Angori cross forced a tricky save out of Mattia Perin.

Khephren Thuram fired over and Francisco Conceicao tested goalkeeper Nicolas with a low drive, while Caracciolo threw himself in the path of a Jonathan David effort.

David also couldn’t keep a header down on Andrea Cambiaso’s assist, so the striker was substituted at half-time after a disappointing performance.

Jeremie Boga came on instead and made an immediate impact, brought down by Mehdi Leris for a yellow card within 120 seconds.

Juventus finally took the lead when Kenan Yildiz was sent down the right by Conceicao and stood up the cross for Cambiaso’s free header at the back post. It was a totally empty net, as Nicolas had been drawn to the near post and was not expecting the cross.

They doubled their lead when Weston McKennie won it back on the edge of the area, Locatelli’s angled drive bounced off the far post, allowing Thuram to turn in the rebound from 12 yards. The players rushed over to celebrate with Spalletti on his birthday.

Boga fired over from a tricky angle on the Yildiz assist, then hit the side-netting after Conceicao harassed Nicolas into an error.

Yildiz got the third when he gathered from Conceicao on the edge of the area, committed Coppola with a shimmy, and blasted into the far bottom corner. It was his first Serie A goal since mid-January.

Cambiaso’s curler flashed just wide of the far top corner from the edge of the box. With the last kick of the game, Locatelli’s inspired slide-rule pass sent Boga through without breaking his stride to dribble around Nicolas and deposit into an empty net from a tricky angle.

Juventus 4-0 Pisa

Cambiaso 54 (J), Thuram 65 (J), Yildiz 75 (J), Boga 93 (J)